Just wondering if anyone is using T4L's new high school (http://www.time4learning.com/homeschool/high_school.html) and if so what your thoughts are. I've been looking at several options and am intrigued by T4L's new program b/c my youngest uses T4L and has been extremely successful with it.
Love that this is the giveaway this month, also!

Thanks!!

Melyssa

09-30-2013, 07:01 PM

We used T4L when my daughter was in 4-6th grades and it was great because we were in so much transition then with moving and all. Then we switched to other things for 7th grade and only used T4L for math. She continued with their math all through the 8th grade level when she was in 7th grade. When she switched to Teaching Textbooks Algebra 1 in 8th grade, she was very well prepared for it thanks to T4L. I was sad that T4L didn't have any high school and that we were totally done with it. I wish I had known sooner the highschool was coming out so I could have planned accordingly. It would have changed our entire school year but I'd already started with everything I needed except World Geography which is something we planned to do for 9th grade, this year. So I did sign up for it but that is the only subject we are using. So far, so good. I think it will cover all the basics she will need to know. But she doesn't have any time for the other subjects. So maybe next year we'll incorporate it more.

QueenBee

10-01-2013, 08:56 AM

Hi Melyssa,

Thanks for replying!

I'm glad that it's going well so far with Geography. Can I ask a few follow-up questions? :)

Is the course pretty challenging?

How is the scheduling? Too much, too little? Was it easy to set up and follow?

So far, T4L is the only thing that really works well with my youngest. We do other things in addition, but the format and set-up seem to be what she needs. So we're had a good experience, but she is the only one of my four girls that uses it. My oldest is very literature/book/writing based, though she'd probably enjoy the computer...

Thanks again for the reply!

Melyssa

10-01-2013, 03:10 PM

We're only in the first unit so far so can't say much about it yet. So far it isn't challenging but interesting. My daughter likes the format. I print out the resource pages and put them in a binder, and she fills out the assignments in there. I hope it is light and not too vigorous because her other classes, in particular Algebra 2 and Biology, have a ton of homework this year.

QueenBee

10-01-2013, 04:48 PM

Thanks for the feedback, Melyssa. Algebra II is incredibly difficult in 9th grade! Good for your DD. :)
Good luck with T4L this year. Hopefully everything goes smoothly. =)

Melyssa

05-21-2014, 11:01 PM

Just a follow-up. She is about 2/3 done with the world geo. It suited our purpose this year. It isn't awesome but it does the job. It's not a subject I'm super picky about though. It was just the right amount of work, and the computer format is fabulous for her.

Next year it is looking like we don't have an English option at her charter school program so am thinking about using the T4L English 2 (which I think means 10th grade) as well as having her take a writing class at the school. I am also having her do the Health.

QueenBee

05-22-2014, 08:08 AM

Thanks so much for the update. We're finishing up the year and I'm starting to panic a little about high school. It's good to hear it worked for you. I'm curious about their English. The demos look good. Frankly, I'm sick of grading essays - wish they had an option for 3rd-party grading! =)
The health is also something I'm interested in. I've created our own, used different packages... I'm running out of ideas. I'll be interested to see what your thoughts are if you guys use it.
Thanks again!

aspiecat

05-22-2014, 08:37 AM

Hi QueenBee,

I am considering T4L for DS, who is in 9th grade. He's doing a mixture of work from varying levels of high school, and I am keen on T4L as he needs a set English and Social Studies program, whereas Science and Math is already taken care of. The thing I like about T4L is the ability to take what courses your child needs/wants, so long as they only take four (as far as I am aware, that's how it is). So DS would most likely take English, World History, Geography and Economics/Personal Finance, and do his Math and Science courses separately. He will be doing two IT courses as well, and wants to have his stepdad tutor him for an attempt at the SAT, so he would be up for a busy year.

I have some reservations, admittedly. The high school program does have this tendency to have a lot of cartoon-style videos, and that annoys the heck out of my DS. He prefers lectures, straight and simple, but apart from Khan Academy, which has some good courses (mostly aimed at early college, aside from Math), there really isn't anything else that has the level of interactivity DS needs. And Khan only has videos to watch, no worksheets or tests (well, for school Math they do, but that is it).

We did try T4L last year for a month, but DS and I had issues with reading comprehension. Students are expected to read the rather long passages to the extent they remember it all for the following questions. That is not reading comprehension to me. Of course what I didn't know was that T4L expected us to have all the literature with us as reference for such exercises, so it was a Catch-22 as we were only trying it out and didn't want to fork out a lot for books if we didn't continue with T4L.

However, that all being said, I am still looking at using T4L from July and we'll see how it goes. Maybe. LOL.

QueenBee

05-22-2014, 09:28 AM

Yes, that is something I have heard about the high school program -- that the reading passages are very long and it is difficult to remember everything to pass the quiz. I know some moms wrote about having their child take extensive notes. I hadn't heard about having the lit materials right there in front of the student, but that makes sense (except in your case where you were only test driving).

The videos are a question for me, too. I wonder if my daughter will get sick of them, etc., before too long. I'd hate to have to switch curriculum midyear. She has a hard time paying attention so I wonder if the funny videos will help with that or be a distraction for her...

It's so hard to decide, isn't it? Good luck with figuring out your next academic year! If you use T4L I'd love to hear your thoughts. And if we use it I will post an update.

Thanks!

pandahoneybee

05-27-2014, 08:48 AM

We have been using the T4L highschool program all this year...my oldest was doing English, Algebra, history we used it also for my middle schooler for science. I personally love T4L and have used it since we began homeschooling. I supplement with things the boys are interested in and other classes for my high schooler (we are in a local co-op) But I would say for the price and the amount of things you get its a great deal. We tried K12 one year...it didn't work for us. It was like school at home which is why we only used it for a couple of months.

Math has always been a hard thing for my oldest so the way T4L has set it up really worked for us...he could repeat concept lessons as needed. He loved the history and was always telling me about things he had learned!! Feel free to ask me any other questions i will try and answer anything I can:)

QueenBee

05-27-2014, 11:45 AM

We have been using the T4L highschool program all this year...my oldest was doing English, Algebra, history we used it also for my middle schooler for science. I personally love T4L and have used it since we began homeschooling. I supplement with things the boys are interested in and other classes for my high schooler (we are in a local co-op) But I would say for the price and the amount of things you get its a great deal. We tried K12 one year...it didn't work for us. It was like school at home which is why we only used it for a couple of months.

Math has always been a hard thing for my oldest so the way T4L has set it up really worked for us...he could repeat concept lessons as needed. He loved the history and was always telling me about things he had learned!! Feel free to ask me any other questions i will try and answer anything I can:)

Thanks so much for the information! Right now, of course, I'm drawing a blank on questions! I'm sure they'll come back to me... :)